New Music Gear Monday: Ian Sampson Hush AI-Driven De-Noise App

Today’s artist is more concerned with getting the performance recorded than how it sounds, as it should be. That means that the recordings could be made on a noisy iPhone or in a home studio filled with background noises so you’re left scratching your head what to do when it comes to mixing. There are many de-noise solutions now available, but none are as simple or effective as Ian Sampson’s Hush.

While most other AI-driven de-noisers are based in the cloud, Hush is different in that it’s a Mac app that sits on your desktop. It’s Apple Silicon-ready, which is a good thing in that Hush runs on the Apple Neural Engine subprocessor, and that allows it to render audio quickly and efficiently without even turning on the fans.

Simplicity

This is one of those plugins that is dead-simple to use or screw up with over-tweaking. You drop the file, or batch of files, in the window, select if you want the output format to be the same as the original or either at a different bit or sample rate, and that’s pretty much it. A Mix control is the only adjustment that you need.

Hush will output a dead quiet track that you could swear was done in a nice quiet studio somewhere. All the background noises like air conditioning, traffic, and wind, and even any ringy or echoey room sound is not just reduced, but completely muted.

Developer Ian Sampson, who holds a PhD from Brown University, has published several libraries on GitHub. This is his first commercial venture and it’s a winner.

You’d expect to pay big bucks for capabilities like those found in Hush, but it’s available for just $49 from the Apple App Store. This is a straight purchase and not a subscription so it’s a real bargain. There’s a full 21 day trial period as well.

At the price Ian is asking, it’s worth buying just to have for those occasional situations that require noise reduction. Better to have it ready to use than to go hunting when you’re under the gun to get something out the door. You can find out more and listen toHush at work here.

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